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Rotating monitor - Yet another take
weisshaupt:
CSA asked for a shopping list, and the thought occured that he might not be the only one who would like one..Of course this it not an endorsement of any particular vendor and I am not affiliated in any way with solarbotics.. they just happen to have the parts I used :>)
From Solarbotics:
GM3 motor (easier to mount than the GM2)
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/gm3/
The Regular Motor 2 upgrade
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/rm2/
The mounting Bracket
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/gmb39/
A wheel
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/gmpw/
A Extra Grip Tread (it is a friction drive after all- the more tire that meets the road)
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/gmtt/
And then for the Electronics you need:
A Chip socket:
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/dc-16_pin/
The secret Motor Driver Kit
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/k_smd/
And of course a soldering iron and some solder. The Chip holder isn't required, but if you are a novice at soldering its a good idea. Too much heat on that IC and you could bust it. Solder the socket to the PBC and that can't happen. Plus if you wire something wrong and blow out he chip, you can just put another one it, rather than trying to desolder it or buy another kit.
For wiring I used a CAT 5 (ethernet) cable. I have my own crimping tools, but you can cut one in half and just solder the open ends to the board.
Then you need a DB25 to RJ45 converter..
Similar to this one..
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=805
weisshaupt:
--- Quote from: DaOld Man on February 21, 2008, 10:26:36 am ---weisshaupt: I dont think you failed at all.
As far as getting with you on the same inputs, my rotmala can be programmed to use any of the input pins.
--- End quote ---
I think the problem is I assumed too much knowledge on behalf of the reader -- some folks don't really want to know how or why it works. They just want to know which wire goes where, and I assumed they could figure it out from what I wrote... which given the comments, they are having a difficult time doing. At least a more difficult time than I intended.... :>)
The configurability is cool, but with great power comes great responsiblity ...
It might make sense to come up with a standard pinout that your program uses by default,
Koz319's pinout sounds fine to me.. and I can modify my little program to mimic it. That way if we put a wiring diagram in the Wiki, your program, Koz319's program and my program will all work "out of the box"
Also, are you incorporating any controls in your program for motor speed? The hard limits provided by Psychotech's switches would have been disasterous in my implementation. My monitor is 20inchs AND bottom heavy. With a larger motor like yours, speed/braking probably will not be an issue, but with these little hobby motors, its a different story. At full speed, my monitor would have hit the hard limit and BOUNCED! Pulseing the "go left" and "go right" leads from your program with different duty cycles will allow the motor to alternately move and brake, keeping any rotational momentum under control... maybe a box where you select a duty-cycle period in seconds, and a slider that goes from 0-100%? Obviously not needed for your implementation, but others will probably need it, and you seem to be WAY better at coding than I...
Also, I haven't played with MALA much.. its a bit off topic, but could someone direct me to information as to why MALA seems to be the front end of choice?
javeryh:
weisshaupt: I definitely don't mean to offend anyone by saying I want an easier-to-follow solution/example. I read your Ghost In The Machine write-up several times (unbelievably sick job by the way) and it's very very helpful. I do want to know how and why it works as well - it's just that a "stick this wire here" explanation is what someone like me needs to get started. I make the analogy that it's probably like trying to teach a 3 year old that 2+2=4. There's no simpler way to explain it other than 2+2=4 and you want to bang your head against the wall when they just can't grasp the most basic of concepts. I'm that 3 year old when it comes to this stuff. The coolness factor can't be denied though so I'm willing to muddle through it (and torture smarter people such as yourself with questions along the way!).
Oh, I use MaLa because it's very easy to set up and it supports the U360 map plug-in that fatfingers wrote. There is no more guesswork with the controls - I go from Galaga to Street Fighter to Q*bert to Pac-man and it's all seamless to the user. It is also totally skinnable/customizable and there is excellent user support on these forums from loadman and others). Adding an automatic rotating monitor would just about make everything ideal.
When I think about first loading Street Fighter and having the monitor automatically turn horizontal and the controls automatically switch to 8-way and then quitting and loading Pac-man and having the monitor automatically turn vertical and the controls automatically switch to 4-way I can't help but smile. Being user-friendly and looking factory-made are the keys to a great cab, IMO.
:cheers:
csa3d:
--- Quote from: weisshaupt on February 21, 2008, 10:47:27 am ---Also, I haven't played with MALA much.. its a bit off topic, but could someone direct me to information as to why MALA seems to be the front end of choice?
--- End quote ---
My personal opinion is because of ease of setup, the ability to light controls with animation, and the ability to automatically control u360 stick. All the hardware advances made over the past year or so the software application seems to handle quite well. I'm sure other FE's do the same, but I've found no reason to have to look further myself.
-csa
weisshaupt:
--- Quote from: javeryh on February 21, 2008, 11:21:08 am ---weisshaupt: I definitely don't mean to offend anyone by saying I want an easier-to-follow solution/example.
--- End quote ---
No offense taken.. I just really wanted to leave a clear trail behind, and I am disappointed that I failed in the attempt. I will see if I can't get a better step by step put together for the electronics end of it, though I think we need to see a few more attempts before we will know what the "best" mounting method is (hint: not mine)
And if DaOldMan writes his program with Speed control, I think I may try switching over to Mala-- one of the few reasons I uses 3Darcade was it 1) does that really cool rotating cab thing 2) allowed me to call whatever command lines I wanted when I started MAME (and allowed me to insert Mameinfo information into the command line)
Of course, that would mean I would need to purchase u360 sticks....
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